


Stable

by Misanagi



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Abduction, Angst, Captivity, Gen, Torture, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-02-13
Updated: 2008-02-13
Packaged: 2017-10-12 14:07:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/125664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Misanagi/pseuds/Misanagi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aisha Winner sees what her brother has been hiding.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stable

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://community.livejournal.com/gw500/profile)[**gw500**](http://community.livejournal.com/gw500/) for prompt #215: abduction

The first note had come with a lock of Quatre's hair. The demands were high, money and control over one of WEI resource satellites. It was a price the Winner family couldn't afford to pay and Quatre would have outright refused to put the people's supplies in danger just for him.

Aisha Winner had called _the number_. There was no name, just a number she was supposed to contact in case of emergency, in case anything happened to her brother. Hours later a Preventer officer and three other men appeared at her door. She didn't need them to tell her they were the other pilots.

The second note came covered in blood. The lab results confirmed that it was Quatre's. They wouldn't kill him, the note said. They would keep him but they would harm him until their demands were met. There was no timeline; it all depended in how much time the Winner family wanted their head to suffer.

"He's strong," the green-eyed pilot, Trowa, assured her. She had cried anyway.

They stayed awake at night; Heero busy working at the computer and Wufei organizing a search with the Preventers. Duo and Trowa had gone somewhere. They came back in time with the third note. They had a lead.

It was a video this time. 'To show you how we pass the time' the note said. Aisha had insisted on staying and watching it with the pilots. She threw up on the carpet. The pilots were very silent for a while and when she looked at them she saw in their angered faces the dangerous terrorist and understood how they could be killers.

"He can handle that," Heero told her and handed her a glass of water. She didn't want to ask if they had all handled something like that before. She didn't want to know the answer.

They left that night. Duo braved a smile, "We'll get him back," he assured. She waited and hoped.

It was two days before the phone rang. There was no image but she recognized Wufei's voice. "We got him back. He's stable."

Stable. She didn't think that was very good. Wufei's voice hadn't shook when he had spoken but then again none of them had shown any weakness. Aisha knew they cared, she recognized the little gestures her brother did sometimes and it was just when she met the others that she realized they were soldier's gestures. They showed their worry in their own way. Quatre was one of them, she understood, a Gundam pilot, a soldier, and 'stable' was a soldier word.

The story finally broke on the news. There weren't many details, just that Quatre Winner had been kidnapped and rescued and he was recuperating at an undisclosed location. The perpetrators were dead.

The calls started that afternoon, sisters, relatives, friends of the family and to all Aisha replied the same: "Quatre is stable."

It was two weeks before Quatre called. The image was turned off but Aisha could tell by his voice that Quatre was far from fine. He assured her he was recuperating quickly, that she didn't need to worry… but she had seen that video. He couldn't fool her.

Quatre Winner returned to his job after a month. He looked the same, smiled as easily and accepted gracefully all the well wishes from the people around him. When Aisha saw him she subtly looked for scars and noticed not just the pink ones that were probably recent but also old and faded ones. She saw what Quatre was hiding, not just now, but what he had been hiding since the war.

She and her sisters had always spoken the words 'Gundam pilot' proudly, as if their brother was some kind of hero, and he was. But now Aisha saw all the other things the word entailed, the little traits, the scars, the dangerous nature, the pain, _the strength_ her brother had been hiding… and she understood.

 _Stable_ really was much more than she could hope.


End file.
